1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a microelectronic component with a component body determining the properties of the component and with at least two connecting electrodes electrically connected with the material of the body for electric bonding toward the outside, especially in an electronic circuit, or wherein the component body consists of at least one cluster compound having a metallic cluster nucleus and nonmetallic (insulating) ligand shell shielding and stabilizing the cluster nucleus toward the outside.
2. Description of Related Art
Microelectronic components are individual parts of electronic circuits or systems in which they can perform various functions, especially production and conversion of electric signals, logic functions, etc. Now, microelectronic components are normally semiconductor components in chip technology. The semiconductor material is in most cases silicon.
The latest research in semiconductor materials tends to use electron quantum effects for new actions and a reduction in size of the structures. So-called quantum-wave structures have already become known. They are structures in which a thin layer of a semiconductor with a small energy gap is embedded between thicker layers of a semiconductor with a greater energy gap. The embedded layer is a few nanometers thick, it is thinner than the free path length of the electrons. The limitation of the movement leads to a quantizing of the kinetic energy. But, this quantizing is limited only to one dimension; in the layer, the electrons can freely move, so that a two-dimensional electron gas results. The associated result is a structural density by steps of the two-dimensional electron gas. It is now attempted to further quantize the quantum-wave structures with a two-dimensional electron gas, i.e. to limit and to quantize the movement of the electrodes in another direction in space--quantum-wire--or even in all three directions in space--quantum-box/quantum point. In the case of a quantum point, the structural density would consist of a series of singular energy states. But, the production of quantum points in practice has not, as yet, been achieved. However, quantum-wave semiconductor lasers and quantum-wave transistors are already known.
Also, in great research laboratories, studies are now made at considerable cost to produce quantum-wave structures up to quantum-point structures in semiconductor materials (Spektrum der Wissenschaft [Spectrum of Science, which is the German edition of Scientific American[) Sonderheft "Ultrarechner" [Special Issue "Ultracomputer"], Issue 1991, p. 28 ff). In these tests, the operation is always performed with semiconductor materials, but with gallium arsenide or aluminum gallium arsenide not with silicon.
A process for the production of a microelectronic component with quantum points of semiconductor material placed on a substrate is known (gallium arsenide; published German Application 41 02 573 A1). Here, gallium arsenide clusters are accelerated and deflected by electric and magnetic fields so that only clusters of certain sizes strike the substrate and thus form quantium points with defined properties. Thus, this is also a process for scientific purposes relative to semiconductor materials, in which a reference to a microelectronic component operating in practice is still lacking.
Producing metallic quantum-wave structures in semiconductor base materials is also known per se; in this case, it involves ultrathin continuous layers (thickness of 1 nm) produced by molecular beam epitaxy and not cluster structures. Here, there are attempts for the configuration of a microelectronic component by bonding three terminals on such a metallic quantum point embedded in semiconductor material (J. Vac. Sci. Technol. B 8 (2), 1990, 242, 245).
Cluster compound (also called complex compounds or coordinate compounds) which are formed of organometallic molecular clusters having a metallic cluster nucleus and nonmetallic ligand shell are known in the art, and they have long been of considerable interest because of their special bonding ratios between covalent and metallic chemical bonds, because of their polyhedral structures and because of their reactivity (Rompp Chemie Lexikon, 9th edition, Volume 1, 1989, pages 754, 755). The ligand shell protects the metallic cluster nucleus from combining with cluster molecules adjoining the metallic cluster nucleus, it stabilizes the metallic cluster nucleus so that cluster molecules with metallic cluster nuclei are largely inherently stable. Special tests were performed for transition metal cluster compounds (published European Application No. 0 066 287). In this prior art, especially M.sub.55 cluster compounds were studied, their special suitability as catalysts in the catalytic hydrogenation, and also for metal coating of any surface was determined (loc. cit., page 2, lines 56 to 62, M=Au, Rh, Pt, Ru).
The above explanations make it evident that in the field of the quantum-wave, quantum-wire or quantum-point systems, intensive research activity is taking place, but which shows only first attempts to achieve microelectronic components that are able to function in practice, not just theory. Furthermore, while cluster compounds are known, they have not been used to achieve a microelectronic component.